Gala Bingo are in the press last week announcing it could close 6 bingo clubs whilst another 40 - 50 bingo clubs could be sold off.  It is still unclear how quickly the clubs will close, but sources are stating that some of the cinema sites with low turnover and considerable overheads will be announced shortly. Gala Bingo are struggling to find reinvestment since earnings in the group are struggling to reach targets to comfortably pay off debts.

Gala Coral are said to be reviewing the whole bingo club estate and are expecting to concentrate their efforts on the flat bedded bingo clubs. A local Coventry newspaper has stated that the Gala Bingo clubs around that area could close with a loss of around 200 jobs, but this is pure speculation.  The national press have stated the loss of jobs will be national and broad.

Gala Bingo have held management meetings in the last week discussing the way forward for the company.  Some analysts think that Gala Coral could be split up and parts sold off to other operators and investors whilst many independent bingo companies are hoping that Gala will ride out the storm to help maintain the number of bingo players in the marketplace.

Gala, along with many other bingo companies have shown a huge downturn in revenues since the smoking ban and that has been compounded by the recent credit crunch.  The largest bingo operator in the UK has borrowings over £8 billion and earnings are barely reaching the minimum needed to pay off the debt and associated interest repayments.  Gala Bingo is not the only company in this situation as Top Ten has seen its share price crash whilst breaking almost every banking covenant since September last year.  Bingo Supermarket has also reported on how Buckingham Bingo saw their financial backers walking away from £65 million and Riva Gaming had to hand half of its company to a financial expert back by the bank.

Online bingo continues to expand with Gala Bingo performing very well, however the online bingo industry is hugely competitive and supply is now outstripping demand.